1. Possible Issue with the One Control Chip Fixed and Extra Protection Added. The V4 had a vulnerability that showed up in about 5% of the units. Certain BECs were allowing too much voltage to flow back to the board, damaging one of the chips; thus the need for the modified servo cables to clip the voltage. The protection is now on the board, so there’s no need for the modified servo cable. It protects up to 24V accidental input through the servo inputs.

2. Elimination of Chokes. The V4 requires a choke on the Servo Y cable, and on the speaker wires longer than about 5 inches. Without the chokes, RF could feed back into the board causing some funny things to happen with the sound. The V4.1 has chokes built into the board eliminating the need for both the choke on the servo Y and on the speaker wires. The V4.1 prototype has been tested with a speaker wire in excess of 8 feet in length, with no choke. It works solid and without issues.

3. Larger Fuse. The first few V4 units had a smaller fuse on them that would do it’s job too well, and cut out as a protection under normal circumstances. The new fuse allows for the same board protection from backwards power connection, and over voltage, but does not exhibit the errors under normal use.

Improvements

1. Automatic Airplane Finder. The V4.1 has a built in automatic airplane finder. If no throttle input is made for a period of about 3-4 minutes, the system assumes that the airplane has gone down, and begins to emit loud finder “beeps”.

2. Auxiliary Outputs to a Secondary Amplifier. Two new sets of pins are on the board near the speaker output. These are Left and Right, raw and unamplified sound outputs. This allows the customer to send the signal to the amplifier of their own choice. It also allows for each and every V4.1 card to become an “Ultra” system when the customer is ready. It has ready made amplifier/regulator kits that only requires to be plugged in and you go from the 2-speaker Base V4.1 to the 4-speaker Ultra V4.1.

3. Not Just Planes. Changes in the code allows the V4.1 to be used for more than just planes. Coming soon after the intro of the V4.1 card, versions will be available for cars, trucks, tanks, and boats, with respective sounds for each.